[thechat] State of Union Address

Martin Burns martin at easyweb.co.uk
Wed Jan 29 06:10:00 CST 2003


On 29 Jan 2003, John Handelaar wrote:

> On Wed, 2003-01-29 at 03:29, Hugh Blair wrote:
> > My personal opinion:
>
> Go on, surprise me.
>
> > @_#$*)#$%% France
> > _^)$%#(*&# Germany
>
> Ah well, you can't have everything.
>
> The reason France matters is that it can veto things
> on the UN Security Council.  And at the moment, Blair's
> looking like he's going to pull back if there's no
> explicit, additional, UN resolution.

And the other thing is that they announced that as part of a "Oh bugger
off Britain, we're bored with waiting for you to deliver on your 'at the
heart of Europe' rhetoric" summit.

It's a significant shot across Blair's bows to remind him that he can't
just agree to whatever Bush wants without repercussions in Europe. Like
stoking up the debate which so far has been hidden in the Labour party
about joining the Euro (Labour as just as split as the Tories, but have
been hiding it better to date).

> > Of course I'd like to see us keep some the and use any base(s) as a
> > jumping-off point, but we spend too much there for protection that's
> > not needed.
>
> The "jumping-off points" are WHY THEY'RE HERE (duh).

Note significant protests the other weekend at the breach of Ireland's
neutrality by allowing US transports to refuel there.

Cheers
Martin
--
"Names, once they are in common use, quickly
 become mere sounds, their etymology being
 buried, like so many of the earth's marvels,
 beneath the dust of habit." - Salman Rushdie




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